Hours-old baby girl with umbilical cord still attached found in freezing weather on CA road

MADERA COUNTY, CA (KGPE/CNN) - Authorities are asking for the public’s help finding the mother of a newborn, who was abandoned in the middle of a California roadway.

Newspaper carrier Aurelio Fuentes Jr. was on his delivery route early Monday morning when he noticed what he thought was an animal lying in the road. He slowed down, which was when he heard the cries for help.

“And then, I heard the baby crying and screaming. I was like, ‘OK, this is a baby. I gotta get out there,’” Fuentes said. “God knows how long it’s been out there, and it’s below 30 degrees.”

Fuentes says the infant still had its umbilical cord attached. She was cold and wearing only a onesie. He quickly called dispatch while holding the baby girl in the other hand.

"You could see the umbilical cord still attached to it, so this baby was barely born. I can’t tell for how long, but it had feces leaking through its onesie,” Fuentes said. "It was just a chilling, trembling moment. I was in shock. I was shaking.”

A California Highway Patrol deputy arrived on scene to help Fuentes and another good Samaritan who called 911 after discovering the baby girl in the middle of the road. (Source: KGPE/California Highway Patrol/CNN)

Another person pulled over to help him with the newborn, and minutes later, a California Highway Patrol deputy arrived.

The baby, determined to be just hours old, was taken to the hospital, where she is being treated in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, according to the Madera County Sheriff’s Office. She is expected to make a full recovery.

The sheriff’s office says just before Fuentes found the infant, a Hispanic female, possibly in her 20s, in a small white SUV approached a man walking his dog in the area. She reportedly asked him for help and to take her baby.

The man told the woman both a fire station and a hospital were nearby and could take the baby, but the woman drove off.

"It’s very difficult to deal with this type of situation, but we do want people that are in this mother’s situation to know that there are other options. Leaving a baby in the middle of the roadway was definitely not the best option. She should have taken it to a safe surrender site,” Undersheriff Tyson Pogue said.

•• Seeking Suspect ID for Found Abandoned Infant in Madera •• On February 11, 2019, just before 4:30am, Madera County...

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